Tournament number 9 is in the books and it was another good one. We had 27 players this week with a few late cancellations. Will M was the first to leave when Jerry T sent him packing early in round 3. Jerry must have had it out for the family because he then took out Christina M in second to last place in the 4th round. Jeff J, Mat K and Blake M started accumulating chips in bunches by taking out 6 of the next ten. We made it down to the final table late in the 8th round when Mat K eliminated Joy C in 11th place. When the final table started Blake and Mat seemed to have about half the chips at the table. They continued to add to their stacks by eliminating the first 3 players at the final table. Blake took out Kelly M in 10th, Mat got Bob L in 9th and Blake then took out Scott C in 8th. I manged to get a huge triple up from Mat and Blake when they both called my all in and I caught the nut flush taking me from about 3300 in chips to about 10,000. Early in round 10 Mark L wast taken out in 7th by Karen D. I took Mat K out in 6th making him this weeks bubble boy (no new golf driver for him this week). Next out was Karen who was happy to have lasted into the first money spot after being short stacked for much of the final table. Last weeks winner Steve N made another great showing this week holding on for a fourth place finish. Darlene J had another great finish managing to hold out for a third place finish without having a single knockout all night.
When Blake and I got heads up he had a fairly significant chip lead and it looked like I was done, barring some very lucky cards. They eventually came and I was able to even things up maybe even take a chip lead. We had a great heads up battle trading the chip lead and momentum back and forth for quite awhile. Blake did a great job whittling away at my chips when I went through a long period of terrible cards. Just about the time I thought it was over I managed to get all in with my A,J and got a call from Blake with his A,10. This put me in the chip lead for good. I was able to finish it off when Blake moved all in with K,10 and I happened to look down and find aces. Blake caught a king on the flop but nothing else. Our heads up battle lasted almost 45 minutes and what seemed like at least 100 hands (thanks to Tom and Darlene for shuffling and dealing). I become the third person, along with Gary and Jeff, to have two wins in a single season which had never even happened once in the prior seasons.
I'll have both the bounties on me next time as both the previous winner and points leader. It looks like there is going to be a very tight race for the last couple of spots in the final tournament. There is only about 40 points separating 17th and 23rd places and only 12 between 20th and 21st. We play again on April 9th and it will be the last one before your lowest scores can start dropping if you have made every one.
